Swap
by DudeYouJustTotallyStoleMyCar
Summary: The Doctor and Rose try for a happy moment, but it gets interrupted... 10/Rose  Crossover with Angel - A/C
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys. It's the same chappie, just a revised version, as I didn't like the first version. Not much has changed, it's basically the same, just a bit better!**

**Enjoy!**

The Doctor was sitting on his bed with Rose, his hand held out to her in a somewhat friendly gesture, waiting. By this hesitant and clearly unsure gesture, Rose figured he was still nervous about the new step in their relationship.

Just yesterday he had finally cracked after they came back from dealing with The Wire, and Mr Magpie in the 1950's. Something about her not having a face tugged fiercely at his hearts and caused all the walls he had been holding up to crumble. He had no power left to fight and had lost all control. He had found himself at her feet, sobbing, and suddenly blurting out all he felt for her in one single sentence, that didn't particularly make sense. She got the gist. "Took you long enough,"she had said and smiled warmly at him. She had taken him to his bedroom, where she kissed him and held him and told him it was going to be all right, that she was here and that she was never going to leave him. He had fallen asleep in her arms. Now, he sat here clearly unsure of where they stood after his debut as a lunatic the night before. He wasn't sure how she felt. What if she didn't want him? What would he do then? This was why he put the walls up in the first place, took precautions with her, tried to keep his distance, all to keep his hearts from getting broken. Now, however, it was too late to put the walls back up again, he was defenceless and completely at her mercy. Evidently, she was oblivious to the fact that he was getting more and more anxious with each passing millisecond when she didn't respond to his gesture.

Or so he thought.

Smiling at the way his eyes turned doubtful, then anxious, then practically terrified when she did not put her hand in his right away, Rose stood up, slowly pulling him up with her.

"When are you going to accept the fact?" she asked seriously, looking into his eyes and wrapping her hand around the wrist of his outstretched arm as if to force it away. The Doctor's face was now struggling to conceal the panic and worry behind his eyes. The worry of being rejected! How odd. As if she could possibly reject him! She almost laughed at the thought!

He visibly swallowed, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down his throat as if it, too, were nervous. "What–what…fact?" He unconsciously clenched and unclenched the fingers of his left hand, the one Rose was holding.

Rose couldn't hold back a giggle as he started to clench and unclench his fingers. His eyes widened as she giggled. She decided he needed a hint. She slid her hand down to hold his now clenched fist and brought it up to her face, just as she snaked her left arm around his waist, pulling him closer to her.

"The fact that I love you." She kissed his clenched fist softly and closed her eyes, loving the way the skin of his hand felt against her lips. When she opened her eyes he was staring at her, clearly shocked by her words. It took a minute, but the shock died and was replaced with what Rose could only describe as a sudden flood of emotion. He wrapped his right arm around her waist and pulled her even closer to him to whisper in her ear.

"Guess what?" he whispered

"What?" she breathed, her heart racing frantically in her chest.

He smiled. "I lo-"

"-ove you too" He leaned back to look at her, his adoring smile quickly faded away and horror replaced his features. He yanked his arm from around Rose's waist and took a step back. He looked nauseas. She had a feeling she probably looked the same.

"Wh-who the hell are you? Where's-?" She was cut off from her question as he pushed her roughly aside and began to look around the room, his face shocked. As he frantically started to search for whatever he was looking for, she calmly began to inspect her surroundings, surprising herself. She knew it would only be a matter of time before it really hit home and she had a fit, but for now it seemed that she was in shock. The only thing she could physically do at the moment was stare around her in a daze. It looked like she was in a miniature apartment of some kind. The walls were a creamy colour and it smelled rusty. There was a double bed right in front of her (she hadn't moved) and what looked like a kitchenette to her left, next to the door. There was a newspaper on the bed, she picked it up. '_June 4__th__, 2006'_. OK, so she was in the correct year. That was a plus. She noted that the window was in front of her, but the curtains drawn. From the silvery light touching the curtains, she deduced that it was probably morning. Then it hit her…she was on Earth. She wasn't on the TARDIS and the Doctor wasn't anywhere in sight. Her hands were cold and clammy. She dropped the newspaper.

"OK," she said. Her voice was slightly shaky as she turned to the man who was now searching the wardrobe franticly, calling out a name she didn't recognise. He turned to face her, his dark eyes almost burning a hole in her head from his intense glare. She glared right back. He was wearing a black leather jacket, although he was inside and in a hot room, a black top underneath it and black jeans with white socks sticking out from underneath. "Who the bloody hell are you, and where am I?" she asked, her voice betraying an edge of panic.

"What, you don't know?" he shot back vehemently. He had an American accent and she prayed fervently that she wasn't in America, otherwise she was doomed. The panic increased. "You're obviously a demon or something, probably sent here to destroy my happiness - again. Where's-?"

"Demon? Are you joking?" She started to consider the possibility that she had landed in a parallel world – again. The thought almost made her crazy. She had lost Mickey, she couldn't be there again. She had to calm herself down before she spoke again. "What planet is this?"

"Earth…duh." He looked at her cautiously now, as though he feared she were a raving lunatic. "Well," she mumbled under her breath. "That's confirmation enough. I'm definitely on Earth." Normally parallel Earth's, or the one that The Doctor, Mickey and herself had landed in, had a slightly different name. Her dad's world had been called Dearth for some reason, although to her, it seemed their world wasn't lacking in anything – except her. She brought herself out of her reverie to tackle the matter at hand.

"Right…so how can I be a demon?" she asked him, out loud. "I'm human." She raised her eyebrows at him. It was obvious she was human, how stupid could a guy get?

He sniffed the air. "Well," he said stepping forward, folding his arms and looking at her with disdain. "You're not human actually, well, at least not fully anyway. So I'll ask again," he said, crossing his arms in a menacing kind of way. "What the hell are you doing in my hotel?" He asked slowly, as if she were deaf. Rose ignored this.

"Wait—wait, what do you mean 'not fully'?" she air quoted. Rose was completely baffled, she was sure her eyebrows hand now reached her hairline. She decided that she needed answers, and she need them now. "OK, let's try for some normal talk." She reasoned, loosing her patience. This man was obviously mentally challenged. "How about we start with names, since we are not able to communicate properly." He raised his eyebrows as if he were thinking the same thing, that she was mentally challenged. She took a deep breath. "I'm Rose. What's your name?" she asked as calmly as she could manage. She wanted to get this over with.

"I'm Angel"


	2. Chapter 2

**Hola. First off, lots of love and thanks to my Beta (Ree923)**

**Secondly, sorry for the late update, I was a bit downhearted when I got no reviews, but I'm back and ready to roll! **

**Hope you all like it!**

"Angel – duh?" she said. Her eyebrows rose in disbelief. "You know, tall, dark, brooding…sexy?" she said emphatically, glaring at her sudden, skinny, silent companion. He simply stared at her, clearly unable to form any sort of reply. "God, you're of no use to me whatsoever!" she exclaimed throwing her hands up in the air and flinging herself in one of the seats opposite to the sullen man.

She could barely believe what was happening. One moment she was in the arms of her oh-so- hunky man, the next she was in the arms of some weirdo British guy, in one of the strangest places she had ever set eyes on. The place was decked with what she could only describe as big fat tentacles hanging from the ceiling and joining together; they had a weird light brown colour to them. There were odd chairs, and there was bizarre metal grating on the floor, all of which were a variation of the colour brown. When she stomped to the chair, the floor shook a little.

She looked expectantly at him, waiting for him to reply to her comment about his uselessness — but no. Usually Angel would stare her down and comment that he was doing the best he could, but this man was NO Angel. Her heart panged. She missed him already. _This_ guy was tall, skinny and had on a brown pinstripe suit, he had messy dark brown locks as though he had been running his skinny fingers through them in agitation, and he had large brown eyes. _God_ she thought, _is everything in this place brown?_

She sighed loudly. What was she going to do? Wait until the guy finally started to talk? No, she said to herself, she was going to get out of here one way or another. She sat up in the chair and was about to open her mouth when she saw that the weirdo guy was right in front of her, his face furious. The words she was about to say, stuck in her throat and she shrank back a little in her chair, suddenly frightened. The look on his face was even worse than when her dorky man vamped out. She was more than scared. She was petrified.

He suddenly wrapped his hands around her arms and shook her. "Where is she?" he yelled in her face. "What have you done with her?"

"Ouch! God, that hurts! Get off me!" she said struggling against his surprisingly powerful grip. He didn't let go, he just stood there staring at her, waiting for the answer that he needed.

"Look I don't know where she is! I don't even know _who_ she is! Let—" He suddenly released her in a howl of rage and paced the consol room, trying to work away the misplaced anger he now felt for the girl. It wasn't her fault, and he knew it. She had looked just as surprised as he did when they had locked eyes. He had expected to see Rose gazing up at him, her beautiful hazel eyes twinkling, his favourite tongue-in-teeth smile spread across her face as he told her he loved her… instead he had got an almighty shock…

"I'm sorry." The Doctor said, he shut his eyes and started rubbing his temples. "I shouldn't have lost control like that. It's not your fault that you ended up here, the exact moment I was going to— well…" he stopped talking, he wasn't about to tell her what she had unknowlingly interrupted between him and Rose. He looked up at her, apprehensively, expecting to see anger, or at least feel a well-deserved slap across the face. (He had just shaken her half to death after all: she was rubbing her probably bruised arms)

There was no anger; instead there was sympathy and…understanding. She rolled her eyes. "I guess I'm not the only damsel in distress in this room, then", she smirked as his brow creased. Then her eyes narrowed and there _was_ anger. She got up and with her right arm, slapped him right across he face. He had known that he would get one eventually, but he didn't expect it to hurt as much as it did. He rubbed his cheek pitifully and looked up to see her glaring at him.

"But if you _ever_ touch me again, I will kick your skinny ass. Got that?" He nodded. "Good", she said shortly, glowering at him.

He sat down in the jump seat opposite her and put his head in his hands, his cheek still smarting. She took pity on him and stopped glaring, for now. "So what the hell is this place anyway?" she asked looking around, once again, at the strange décor "cause it looks like something out of Star Trek" she laughed. Surprisingly, he found himself chuckling along with her, amused by her comparison. It really looked nothing like Star Trek, but he supposed that that was the only human reference she could come up with. They looked at each other and he could tell from her face that she was in pain too. This "Angel" (_peculiar name,_ he thought) must be very important to her. He sighed. He was going to have to find out more about her to know where Rose went. He had a hunch that Rose and this woman swapped places. He got up and started playing with the controls getting the TARDIS ready for flight.

"First things first" he said, turning to her, "what planet are you from?"

"What?" she asked incredulously. Did he just ask her what planet she was from?

"What planet are you from", he asked slowly and precisely, eyeing her cautiously from across the room. He had a feeling she was from Earth, which would make things a whole lot easier.

"Uh…Earth." It sounded like a question. Where else was she supposed to be from?

"Brilliant!" said the Doctor jumping to the controls. "We can get you back in no time!"

She was completely confused. Then she got it. "Wait," and it took her a while to get her head around this, "Are we…are we not on Earth?" she asked, petrified for the answer. If she wasn't on Earth, then where was she? And how was she not on Earth?

"Nope we aren't on Earth." The Doctor felt he needed to give the whole introduction, since her face had lost its colour. "We are on my…space ship," He said warily. He didn't want to freak her out even more, although, it was a bit late for that.

"So um," her voice sounded hoarse to her own ears. "We are in a space ship? In space?" He nodded. "How?"

"Weell, I won't bore you with the details but we _are_ in space. Look." He gestured to the little screen in front of him, and beckoned her over. "See, the Koranthusan Galaxy, home to 3 solar systems, 8 suns and 55 planets." He announced enthusiastically. His new companion didn't look enthusiastic. In fact she looked a little queasy. _Rose would've loved to hear about this,_ he thought broodingly. He put it out of his mind, if he kept thinking about Rose he wouldn't be able to keep up with his act of 'I'm always alright', which he definitely was not. _Breath_, he told himself. _I will find her_. He contented himself with trying to be as nice as possible to his unwanted human.

"Are you ok?" He asked her, she was looking queasier by the second.

She didn't answer, she simply stared at the screen showing her, clearly, the "galaxy" they were in. This had to be a dream; this couldn't be real, could it? She had to find out; she had to know for sure. Without thinking, she ran to the door and yanked it open, ignoring the cries of "No! Don't do that!" and believing that she would see sunlight on her face and a street full of people, bustling around Los Angeles. No such luck. Her heart stopped. Then started beating double-time. She didn't even feel herself being pulled away from the door as she continued to stare. She had faced unthinkable things before, of course. Sloth demons, lots of yuk monsters and all sorts of green scaly things, but this… she had no words. She was in space. She looked into the blackness, and slowly felt herself falling down, down, down, into the dark abyss.

* * *

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	3. Chapter 3

**Hola. It's me again. Sorry for the long wait - my English essay comes first, i'm afraid.**

**Anyway, here's the next installment, for those of you who are interested. I hope you enjoy. xx**

**Disclaimer: None of the characters you recognize here are mine.**

"So um, this is real then" she asked, holding the ice bag to her head and trying not to think about the throbbing headache she was experiencing. She felt it would be polite to ask him calmly rather than accuse him of drugging her, which she was on the verge of doing. She had embarrassed herself enough with the bat incident.

"Yeah… it is." He said looking at her warily for any signs of fainting, or shock.

"And…I'm not dreaming?" she asked, already knowing the answer but unable to resist asking anyway.

"I think you know that you're not dreaming" he said gently, gesturing to the cut in her arm. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He didn't think she was _that_ creative.

It was the first time they had really had a sort of conversation without one of them going crazy on the other. She noted that he looked very calm and in control, a far cry from what she felt like. She felt as if her insides were about to fall out any minute. It was turning out to be a really weird day for her. First landing in this place then… well _this_! _How much more am I supposed to take?_, she though, looking at his face. It looked normal now, but before it had looked…well…odd, or perhaps terrifying was the word.

"Yeah" she agreed, forlornly, in response to his reply.

_She's taking this quite well_, he thought. No sighs of throwing up, although it did look as though she was going to faint earlier on. He didn't think his vampire side was _that_ scary. Yes, it took people a while to get over it, but once they did, everything was alright from that point onwards. But different people reacted in different ways, he supposed.

He walked over to her and sat on the round chair across from her. They were seated opposite each other. He felt less uncomfortable sitting with her this way.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently. He was sure she would go into shock after a demon attack, a normal person would. They were in the hotel lobby waiting for the team to come back from chasing the demon across LA, the only reason he wasn't participating in the hunt was because it was in the day. He didn't fancy getting burned alive by the sun - again.

He looked over at her and he noticed she was staring at the door, as if she wanted to run out and never look back. He couldn't blame her. After what she had seen today, he wouldn't be surprised if she started screaming at him, but she was quiet - considering…

"_I'm Angel." He had said in exasperation. _

_She scoffed. "You're an angel?" he didn't look like one if she was going to be honest, she pictured angels with wings and all white and fluffy. Not pale, clad in all black, with badly gelled hair, really bad-tempered, and completely unhelpful with stressful situations, like the one she was in now._

"_No I'm not _an_ angel," he sighed; he had heard this so many times before. "My _name _is Angel" he said irritably, glaring at her._

"_Oh." _The irony_, she thought. "Really? Wow that's …um… an interesting name." she smirked, mainly to piss him off. She didn't really like this guy's attitude at all, but it seemed she was stuck with it until she found a way to contact the Doctor, which, she reminded herself, she had no idea how to do. She started to panic again; she fought it back and tried to pay attention to what he was now saying, hoping it was something constructive._

"_Yeah, well, so is Rose" he said, childishly, scrunching up his face and mimicking her voice on the word "Rose"_

_She rolled her eyes, so much for something constructive. She was going to be stuck with him until the Doctor found away to get to her, if he found a way to get to her. Her thoughts were interrupted by Angel's voice - again._

"_Where are you from" he asked, suddenly, looking at her intently. They had identical postures. They were both putting most of their weight on their right legs, arms crossed with grumpy expressions on their faces._

_Rose's expression changed from grumpy to confused. "Err…England" It sounded like a question. Wasn't it sort of obvious where she was from? Her accent wasn't in the least bit American after all. Hadn't he watched Bridget Jones? And then she realised why he had asked her that question. "Wait…are we in America?" She asked. It seemed obvious now that she though about it. Why else would he have an American accent, unless he was like Jack? No one really knew where _he_ was from._

"_Yeah we're in LA." He said simply as if it were so obvious. She frowned at him, it was infuriating, the way he mocked her with his eyes. She felt her need to be with the Doctor again increasing. How was she supposed to get back home to the TARDIS with this guy around? _

_Rose didn't get a chance to worry much longer as just at that moment a scream was heard from below them. She looked up, curious, to see Angel disappearing through the door. She followed instinctively. All that time running with the Doctor made her an expert runner when it came to dangerous situations, so she caught up with him in no time._

"_Go back!" He shouted to her, as they ran down the stairs, the doors of the hundreds of rooms flying past them._

"_No chance" He abruptly stopped running and she almost bumped into him. He gave her a cold, hard, calculating look._

"_I'm serious" _

"_So am I" she said purposefully. Noticing the look on his face, however, she made her voice a little softer. "Let me help" she said. She couldn't help it. Anytime there was danger, she would instantly try to help, wherever she was, whomever she was with, she instinctively felt drawn to do some good. She wanted to do something other than argue with the "Dark Knight" and his contradicting name. _

_He sighed and continued running, she took that as confirmation and ran with him through corridor and multiple doors until Rose's head was spinning. He had said "hotel" when she had first met him, but she didn't actually believe it until she saw the vast expanse of the place. She continued to follow his lead down stairs and more corridors until they reached what appeared to be the lobby._

_Rose stopped._

_She closed her eyes and counted; 1…2…3...4…5… she opened them. It was still there, roaring and snarling and swinging it's long burgundy arms to try and swipe, slash, and kill the people fighting it. A tired looking white man with mousy brown hair and glasses was shouting out instructions in what appeared to be an English accent. There was a bald black man with an axe, hacking away at the thing, and a small, thin woman, who looked around the same age as Rose, with long brown hair. She cried, "Charles, look out!" just as the creature went to wrap it's long scale-like arms around the man's chest, clearly about to break it. But the man dodged the attack and swung his axe into its belly. The creature howled and in an act of retaliation, threw Angel completely across the room. Rose gasped and was about to run over to him, when he jumped up, his face twisted and distorted, his eyes now yellow like the creatures and his teeth…fang like. Rose's heart stuttered and then sped up as she looked at his…face. He snarled, "Is that all you got?" and lunged himself at the creature. The creature tried to dodge the attack, it lumbered drunkenly away from Angel towards Rose, who was slowly backing away towards the stairs. It was then that she spotted a rather heavy looking bat. She quickly picked it up, before the creature could realise she was behind it, and swung it right round so that it came in contact with the creature's head. The bat shattered._

"_Woops" _Good one Rose_, she thought as it turned to her. _

_They all groaned. The man with the glasses looked at her, "Don't move" he mouthed, he moved towards the creature as it lumbered towards Rose, emitting a keen like she had never heard before. Angel, or what she thought was him – his face was unrecognisable – grabbed an axe and threw it right at the creatures arm as it went grab Rose, who had now backed herself into a corner. The axe missed its arm and Rose's head by a couple of inches and stuck into wall she was backed up against. The creature let out the noise again and swung its left arm, knocking back the two men, who were slowly approaching it. Angel flew out and seized the creature by its head in an obvious attempt to twist it off, but it looked as if the creature was made of steel, it threw him off it's back, swung its arm again and, still screeching, broke through the glass doors and ran into the daylight. The people fighting it immediately followed it out, leaving Angel and Rose alone._

_Angel was lying on the floor, the daylight pouring in from the broken window. It took her a moment to realise that she could hear a sizzling sound and smell burning, as if someone were burning eggs, and another to realise it was coming from Angel._

"_Angel" she called, she tried to get to him but she realised the axe that missed her head, didn't miss her sleeve, and she was pinned to the wall. She tried to remove the axe, but her other arm had a deep cut in it that she didn't recall receiving._

"_Angel", she called desperately "You're on fire!" she didn't know what to do; she tried to wrestle with the axe. It wouldn't budge. What was she going to do? Angel was going to die, and there was nothing she could do about it. _

_At that point, however, Angel seemed to awaken. He yelped in surprise and pain, stumbled out of the sunlight and quickly tried to put himself out, ripping off his shirt and throwing it onto the floor where it continued to burn until Angel put it out with his shoe…_

Now bruised, battered but armed with a clean and burn free shirt, Angel focused on what Rose was saying, realising that he had zoned out whilst she was talking. The memories of what had happened an hour previously plagued his mind and began to make him aware of how close they all come to death

"Yeah, I'm fine, I guess" Rose answered, aware of the far away look on his face.

"Good, cause you could have gotten yourself killed. What were you thinking?" He asked angrily, she was really stupid. She didn't even know anything about demons!

"Excuse me. I guess I was thinking that you had been knocked on your arse and you needed a little help. I have yet to hear the thanks for that by the way." She replied, just as angrily, crossing her arms and giving him a look that said 'I'm waiting'.

"Thanks?" he scoffed, "For what exactly? For NOT knocking it out with the bat? For almost getting us all killed?"

"Oi, listen, it's not my fault I didn't get an introduction on how to kill…. that thing, when I got here aright?" she argued, their reasonable conversation, going out the window.

"Hey! It's not like I had any warning you were going to show up and ruin everything!" He shouted at her.

"Yeah, well, I'm so sorry!" She yelled back, her voice getting louder, as she became more heated, "But neither did I. I didn't know that I was going to be here. I didn't _know_ that I was going to have to battle whatever you call that thing! I didn't know that I was going to miss him so much!' she blurted out, and immediately felt the tears welling up in her eyes. She sniffed, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to break free. She turned away from him and put her head in her hands. She _hated_ this. She hated being here; she hated this place. She _hated_ missing the Doctor after only a few hours. She wanted to be back with him so badly, it hurt, and she let the tears flow now, because she knew she wouldn't be able to hold them back any longer.

She heard the chair squeak next to her, and felt a hand around her shoulders. She didn't throw it off. She didn't have the energy.

"I'm sorry." He said to her, and he meant it. He didn't know what had gotten into him. He wasn't usually this angry, or this explosive, especially to women. What was wrong with him? The loss of Cordelia had such an impact on his life that it seemed he didn't know who he was anymore, and he hated it. And he missed her so much that it was easy to apologise, because he felt the same way. And because he was sorry, he was sorry that she came here, he was sorry that he couldn't protect her from the demon and he was sorry he hurt her. He knew that she needed to cry and let it all out. As a solitary tear escaped his eye, he let her cry…

**Thanks for reading. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Anyone wanna trouble me with some reviews, tell me where I should go with this? Xxx**

**(P.S I am still working on Las Nineras, it's just gonna take some time. I've got severe writer's block!)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys. It's me again - I know, I've posted really quickly this time. I'm amazed too. Dont get used to it though, as I'm getting my coursework draft back today, so the next week will be spend at the computer - doing my coursework, i'm afriad. But please let me know what you think of this. Tell me what you hate, and tell me what you looove. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not, and will not own any of the characters shown in this story.**

"Hey! I'm talking to you" she said, marching to keep up with his incredibly fast pace. He started climbing the stairs two at a time and she thought she might faint at the mere _thought_ of climbing those stairs after all she had gone through that day.

"Come back!" she called, but he was already gone. She sighed. She was really curious about this, and the fact that he kept avoiding her questions made her even more curious. She looked at the stairs again, and rolled her eyes, a curious girl's gotta do what a curious girl's gotta do. She started climbing.

"Don't bother", he called from below her, book in hand and wearing a satisfied and somewhat smug look on his face. She huffed.

"Really? Do you have to keep doing that?" she asked, exasperated. It was if he was trying to show off his _talent_ - as if it could be called that. It wasn't really a talent, more like an annoyance.

"Oh sorry, am I annoying you?" he asked in a mockingly sweet voice.

"Why, yes, Angel, you are!" she replied with equal 'sweetness', rolling her eyes and walking back down the stairs, happy she didn't actually have to climb them.

"Good. Now you know how it feels. Stop asking me!" he said, sweeping up the glass, a job that he usually reserved for his team. He decided to give them a break, seeing as they were out fighting. He was a nice friend, he thought with a satisfied smile when he was done.

"Sooo." Rose said, accentuating the 'o' especially to annoy him. He rolled his eyes and turned to look at her, wearing an expression of one who had been around for too long to endure petty ribbing. She continued anyway. "What _was_ going on between you two when I popped into this place?"

Rose's confidence with Angel had been growing steadily ever since she had cried all over his shoulder after the demon attack. So, naturally, she felt the need to push her luck and ask him exactly what she had walked – wrong word - appeared in on. The way he was holding her…it reminded her forcibly of the way the Doctor held her. The look in his eyes was what she could only describe as pure emotion and love, and yet that was what she had expected to see from the Doctor. Naturally coming to this conclusion had its consequences: suspicion. She longed to know what he had been doing before she appeared, whether it had anything to do with her being here. She knew that neither she nor the Doctor did anything out of the ordinary other than talk and _attempt_ to kiss. She was still annoyed about that being rudely interrupted. But what she had forced him to tell her didn't sound suspicious in the slightest. It sounded almost exactly like what she and the Doctor were doing, which sounded a bit weird but she didn't pay much attention to that. So now, still suspecting that he had _something_ to do with this (albeit probably unconsciously) she began asking him what they had actually been saying to each other, not realising that it could be in anyway similar to her and the Doctor had been saying (that would have been too weird) maybe what they said had an impact on the situation like a formula or something. She quietly mused that she was starting to think like the Doctor, and she was rather enjoying it.

"Look, I'm not gonna tell you, alright. What we were saying is between me and Cordy." He said emphatically. Couldn't she just understand that? Then a thought came to him. "Wait, what were _you_ talking about?"

"Who said we-I mean I was talking about anything?" Rose said, sidestepping the landmine. Her blush coupled with the slip in the pronouns must have given her away, though, because he gave her a piecing 'You're a crappy liar' look and moved to the chair they had sat on previously. He gestured her to sit down. She did so.

"How 'bout we come to a little agreement." he said

She raised her eyebrows. "What sort of agreement?"

"You don't ask me about my life; I don't ask you about yours. Deal?" he proposed, evenly. He definitely was not comfortable with talking about his personal life, especially with someone he didn't even know. She was silent and had a look of consideration on her face. "Well?" he asked.

-DR-AC-

"Deal." She agreed reluctantly. "So what _can_ I ask you about, then?" she pressed, attempting to sit up on the patient's bed. He pushed her back down and she sighed. "I'm fine! Why do you insist on talking theses goddamned tests? Look at me, I'm perfectly fine."

"To check that you actually _are_ perfectly fine, these tests always detect things we cannot see with the naked eye. And to answer you're question – nothing. The subject of my relationship with Rose is off limits." he stated.

"And that's final" he continued as she opened her mouth to answer back. She closed her mouth and looked at him steadily

"You know, I usually don't get told what to do, especially from some weirdo British guy in a cheap suit."

"Really?" he said sarcastically. She rolled her eyes. "Well, since you almost got yourself killed today by opening the doors of the TARDIS, let's just say that today I will tell you what to do. Don't want to get hurt again do we?" He said, applying a thick "everythingproof" plaster onto her forehead.

She ignored the jibe and asked something that had been plaguing her for sometime. "You keep mentioning a TAR-DIS. What the hell is that?" she questioned.

"It's the name of my ship. TARDIS stands for: Time And Relative Dimension in Space" said the Doctor, proudly. "Do you like it?" he grinned.

She raised her eyebrows. "What? The name of the ship, or the ship itself?"

"Um, both, I suppose" he said, bouncing on his toes, completely distracted by his love of his marvellous ship.

"No." she said nonchalantly.

"What?"

"No" she said again. Didn't he hear her the first time?

"What do you mean 'no'" he said, stunned. "You don't like my miraculous time ship, this ship that travels through space _and_ time? The only one in existence, one of the biggest ships in the universe, the most uni-"

"It's not really my style, British guy, it's too brown." She said, interrupting his rant with a shrug.

"Too brown?" he was baffled. "Humans! So you are not captured by the fact that my spaceship moves through time, you are simply irate that my ship is brown?"

"Yeah, you've pretty much hit the nail on the head." She said coolly. He huffed in response. This human girl was pretty much the only person who wasn't impressed by his miraculous machine. He felt a little deflated.

"Can you leave me alone now? I'm tired and your constant incredulous manner is hurting my head." Cordelia said, in an obvious manner to get rid of him but he didn't notice. He simply stared at her for a few seconds then went to the door and closed it behind him. She heard him say 'sleep tight' as he closed the door behind him.

However stupid she may act, she was in fact a woman who paid attention. There were two things of which he said that stuck in her mind. One was that comment about how huge his ship was. If it was so big, there was bound to be more than one exit, right? The second and most worrying thing was his comment about humans, as if he wasn't one. Well, that would fit seeing as she was in a spaceship. She wasn't comfortable in this place at all. She had dealt with all kinds of things, but aliens weren't one of them. She was starting to panic now. How was Angel going to find her when she was all the way in space? How was she going to get back?

She had to find a way out, even if it meant stalking through this whole place to find an exit. She would do it. How big could this place be anyway?

She was about to find out.

* * *

**Thanks for reading. Please review. Xxxx**


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: None of the characters mentioned in this story are mine.

**Chapter 5**

She stepped out of the room, hesitantly, hearing the muted squeak of the door as it closed swiftly behind her. _Wow, things close on their own here,_ she thought. _Weird. _She suddenly felt very self-conscious. The _ship_ – she was still freaked out by that – rumbled and groaned as she stepped out. It gave the effect as if she were underwater. Apart from the groans, which, apparently, were a _normal_ thing for the ship to do, there was silence. She looked around quickly, checking for any other signs of life. Nothing. Instead of relief, she felt a little scared, but she ignored this and contemplated her next move. OK. She was out now. Where was she going to go? She looked to her left, a long corridor. She looked to her right, another long corridor. She rolled her eyes. Which way was she going to go? She had to make sure she didn't go down the corridor the British guy went down. Cordelia looked down the right corridor again. She started to hear footsteps _crap_, _he's coming_ she thought. He was whistling to himself, but she couldn't tell where he was coming from, everything in this place was so confusing. She quickly did 'eenie meenie minie moe' in her head and ducked round the left corridor and backed herself into a room just as the Doctor's voice could be heard coming closer to where she had been seconds previously.

Cordelia sighed in relief. She didn't have the confidence to move any further than where she was now, in case the Doctor were to find her as she tried to sneak out. She slid down the wall and closed her eyes, thinking about Angel, and what he would have wanted her to do. Angel was brave and valiant and noble, however he was also a hothead, and would not have kept his cool in this place. As Cordelia thought about it she knew that he wouldn't be hiding away in some room trying to escape, he would be demanding to be returned home. She knew that this is what Angel would want her to do. He would want her to be brave.

As she thought about all the things Angel would want her to be she longed for his company. There relationship had only just developed from 'platonic' – if it could've been called that in the first place – into something more, and even though they had only just started to bridge the gap between friends and lovers, she was already starting to miss his touch. She longed for him to wrap his muscled arms around her and kiss her on the head. She longed for him to whisper in her ear that she was going to be fine and that she would be with him soon. Cordelia suddenly realised how much she really missed Angel. As she sat alone in the dark room in an unfamiliar place, she realised that she had never felt so alone. She sniffed and a tear escaped her eye.

-x-

Rose huffed. Yet again she was being ordered about, and she didn't enjoy it at all. Angel's 'team' – if that's they could be called – had come back, and after a short introduction, in which he did all the talking and had introduced her as a English lass (she had almost kicked him at that point) who had unintentionally kidnapped Cordelia, they were asked to sweep up the rest of the mess that _he_ had made in the lobby and couldn't be bothered to clean up. Needless to say she was getting some very odd looks from the team as he was talking. As soon as he left the room however, the looks turned into speech, something she had been apprehensive about. She didn't much care for being introduced as an 'English lass' – she was much more than that - and it seemed that she was going to have to explain herself about the whole 'kidnapping Cordelia' thing, something she was not looking forward to. It began as such:

"So what did you do with our girl Cordelia?" the tall black man started in a menacing voice.

"Yes, do tell us…'English lass'," – he sniggered - "how you managed to steal Cordy away from Angel, right from under his nose," said the man in glasses with the English accent, raising his eyebrow at her. The girl next to him stayed silent.

Rose glared. "Ok, first of all, my name is Rose, that's R-O-S-E, Rose. Not 'English lass' thank you very much." She rolled her eyes as the black man laughed. "Find something funny?" she asked in indignation. He shrugged. She continued "And secondly, I didn't kidnap Cordelia, alright. I don't know what happened to her, I don't know where she is; I don't even know how _I_ got here let alone where she went. So you can stop accusing me of kidnapping because I don't know what happened to either of us, alright?" Rose finished hotly, turning away from them and continuing to dust. She couldn't believe she was doing this. She couldn't believe she was arguing with a bunch of strangers about things she had absolutely no control over!

"Aiight, cool." She heard from behind her shoulder. She turned to see them looking at her with somewhat ashamed expressions. She had obviously gotten through to them.

The small woman spoke, "We weren't blamin' ya – were we Charles?" she said glaring at the black man.

"Oh er nah, we were just wonderin', you know, how she disappeared. Wesley was just kiddin', by the way. We know you didn't kidnap Cordy," he said, apprehensively.

"I said I don't know how she disappeared, I don't even know who she is. I've never met her in my life." Rose replied.

"Alright, that's fine. We wont bother you any more," the small woman said agreeably, and turned to continue sweeping, giving the males significant looks as she did so. She had a Texan accent and a sweet smile both of which Rose found quite endearing.

She turned back to dust.

"I'm Fred, by the way, Fred Burkle!" the woman burst out with a huge smile. "Oh and that's short for Winifred, if you were wonderin' why I had such a funny name. My momma said she always wanted to call me Charlie, but that's sort of a boy-ish name too, and it would have been the same name as his" she said pointing to the black man. " And that would have been _really_ awkward! Oh and when I was younger I used to get teased about my name; they would always call me Freddy, instead of Fred. I don't think my name is that peculiar, I guess it's better than being called a cow, or something else really horrible, although my daddy told me – " she paused and looked at them all. "Oh god, I'm ramblin' again, aren't I" the two men either side of her nodded. Rose just stared. "Oh god, I'm awful sorry, I just get so excited when I meet someone new that I just –" she covered her mouth and grinned. "I'm gonna…" she gestured zipping up her mouth. "I-I talk too much, y'all don't wanna listen to me" She laughed nervously and turned around.

"Erm, no…Fred, I think you're great to listen to." She almost said _and you're really adorable_ but she pulled herself together before she let that slip. Fred turned to give her a huge smile before poking the man with the glasses.

"Oh – and my name is Wesley Wyndam-Pryce." He said and gestured to the man on his left, "and this is – "

"Gunn. Charles Gunn." The man supplied proudly.

Rose scoffed. "Is that like Bond? James Bond, then? Cause that was quite a bad impression"

"Hey, I don't try to be like no James Bond, aiight. I am Gunn. Just remember that part." He said, his face betraying a hint of irritancy.

"Alright then, I will" grinned Rose. She continued, "So what do you guys call yourselves then?"

He gestured towards Angel, who could be seen in a dark office, reading some papers. "'Angel investigations'. Duh?" supplied "Gunn". He seemed to be the liveliest out of the bunch. She chose to counteract this.

"Really? ' Cos I thought you would have called it 'We all have weird and unconventional names Investigations'", she said, trying to suppress her grin.

"You know, you're not making the best first impression," This comment came from behind her, Rose jumped; it was Angel.

She backtracked. She realised these people didn't know her, which meant that she had to be more careful about her humour. _The Doctor would have found that amusing_, she thought sourly. She tried to explain herself. "Oh I was just jok-"

"Nah, I think she's cool actually. You know, the type of girl that calls it how she sees it," said Gunn.

Angel looked at him steadily, raising his eyebrows. "It's the English accent, right?"

Gunn laughed heartily, "Yeah, I guess a guy's gotta love a English chick right?" Rose smiled. "But I still don't trust her," he said, effectively wiping the smile off her face.

"What?" she asked.

Rose folded her arms and looked at them all with disdain; she wasn't very happy, coming here and being treated as though she had done something wrong. It wasn't even her _choice _to be here in the first place.

"Hey, just calling it like I see it. We come in to find a demon waiting for us, and then find out that Cordelia is missing and that we have a new house guest? It don't seem right to me."

"For the last time, I haven't done anything to her. I don't know her at all," Rose exclaimed. "And I thought you said that you don't think that I kidnapped her?"

"I don't, but my instincts are telling me something fishy is going down and that you _might_ have something to do with that. Angel will keep an eye on things anyway," He said, stretching and reaching his arm out in an obvious way to pull Fred in for a hug. "Well, I'm gonna head home, you coming, Fred?" he said, looking down at Fred, who had remained silent after her little rant, with obvious love.

"Yeah sure," she smiled up at him adoringly and he kissed her just as Wesley said, "Yes, I'd better be heading home too," He studiously ignored the couple to his right and looked at Rose. "It was nice meeting you," he started to walk away, but stopped, "Oh and I will take it that that comment about our names was a joke" he said, turning back to give her a small smile before walking out the double doors. Gunn followed, gently pulling Fred along with him.

"Come on, girl" said Gunn, as he attempted to pull Fred out of the lobby.

"Bye, Rose. It was nice meetin' ya." Gunn continued walking, "Um I'll see you tomorrow, that is if you're not sick of us all already and aren't coming back." She said, her eyes betraying her worry that it was true.

"Uh…no, I think I'll be here tomorrow – there's now way I'm getting back home today." She said, wryly.

"That's great!" Fred said, undeterred by the lifelessness in Rose's voice, just as she reached the door and was pulled behind it.

Rose sighed.

"Bye!" Fred called from the doorway, as she popped her head back in.

"Bye." Rose murmured quietly. Angel came to stand beside her.

"Well at least Fred likes you," said Angel in an obvious attempt to lighten Rose's mood.

"Yeah, I seem to have made a great impression on the rest of them," Rose said sarcastically.

"Don't worry, they'll come around. But in the mean time, it's late and you've had a long day. I've set up a room for you upstairs, room 124 – it's a floor down from my room, just encase… anything happens"

"And what am I going to do about pyjamas and toiletries?" Rose asked, already feeling the effects of the day, and suddenly wishing to go to room 124 to get some well-deserved rest.

"Oh." _Woops,_ Angel thought.

It looked like she was going to have to wait for that.

* * *

**A/N – Well there it is. I know it's more Angel and Rose based than it is Cordelia and Doctor based for the time being, but that's sort of where the story is heading at the moment. I will try to add in more scenes from the TARDIS in the next chapter. Thanks for reading. Xxx **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N - Sorry for the long wait. Here's chapter 6 of this story - I hope you enjoy.**

Rose sat in the medium sized bedroom, contemplating her fate. She had never expected to end up in a situation like this, it had never occurred to her that there would be a time when she would be separated from the Doctor for longer than 12 hours. She had been apart from him before, of course, the longest being when she and Mickey had to wait 5 and a half hours for him to come back from the past, from Reinette. She tried not to think about this. He had come back that time. He couldn't come this time, he didn't know where she was, but Rose knew that he would find a way to get to her. If there was one thing she could count on. It was the Doctor's persistence, and the fact that he had blurted out his feelings for her (which she was _still_ trying to get her head around). The very thought of that night send chills down her spine and made her heart beat faster.

_The Doctor and Rose entered the TARDIS both looking worn out as the Doctor closed the TARDIS door and collapsed on one of the jump seats. He put his head in his hands and sighed. Rose stood with her back pressed against the door of the TARDIS, wondering if she should say something. She decided against it, he looked like he needed time to himself. She began to walk out of the room when she heard his voice._

"_Don't go," he said, almost roughly, into his hands. She walked back over to him and was about to sit next to him when she stopped herself. She decided to take the jump seat next to his instead, so as to give him a little more space._

_She was starting to get worried. She feared his silence, and was apprehensive of the next words to come out of his mouth. She hated it when he was like this, silent, blunt. She could take his long rants, his exuberant nature, even his lecture, because she knew that that is what he was like. This…silence, she couldn't take. His coldness was frightening and she was starting to wonder whether this was all her fault. _

_She was the one who had lingered to look at the back of the T.V; she was the one who had gone to Mr. Magpie's shop. She had broken his age-old rule: Don't wander off. This was all her fault. With this thought came another terrifying notion. The reason he was so silent, the reason he had wanted her to stay. He was going to talk to her about…about… Rose forced herself to think it. What if he was going to ask her to leave? Tell her that she had caused too much trouble to stay on his ship and that he couldn't keep risking him and other people's lives for her sake. _

_She began to fret. What would she do when he asked her to leave? Would she beg? No. He would already be feeling bad about it without her begging him to stay. She would walk out as if she weren't bothered, as if she'd had a good time but agreed that her time was up. And when she got home she would break. She would have to hide it from her mother, of course; otherwise Jackie would hunt the Doctor down like a bloodhound and…well. It was pretty obvious. Rose would have to be very careful about hiding her feelings and would have to pretend as though it were her choice to leave. This would take a lot of strength but she knew it would be worth it. To save her mother from rage, save the Doctor from persecution and regret, and save herself from… what? Nothing. There would be no saving herself; there would be nothing to save. She would be only an echo of what she used to be: The Shop Girl. That would be her title again – no longer Dame Rose. All her adventures with the Doctor would be nothing, would _mean _nothing. _

_She would no longer exist. _

_Rose forced herself to breath as these thoughts came crashing down on her, each one cutting her heart. Some cuts were shallow; others were so deep they might have cut her heart into two. She wanted to run away – not out of the TARDIS, but into it's depths, so deep inside this magnificent ship, so far lost that she wouldn't be able to find herself, let alone him finding her._

_Before Rose could start hyperventilating, the Doctor had recovered himself enough to speak._

"_Rose," he said looking up at her. He started. She was pale, very pale and her eyes were huge as if he were about to eat her, but the Doctor couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief at actually seeing her face when he looked up. "What's wrong?"_

"_Nothing, " Rose said, far too quickly. Her voice sounded like a shriek to her own ears so she cleared her throat and smiled (with a LOT of difficulty) sheepishly. "Sorry, sore throat."_

_His eyes widened but he didn't press her further, she had had a long day. He looked at her face again, she still wore the same terrified expression, however she was trying, in vain it seemed, to control it. _

"_Rose, I know you've had a long day but you don't have to be scared any more. The Wire is dead, you're safe." _

_He longed to reach out and touch her but he kept his distance. She might want to be left alone, she had tried to leave but he had stopped her selfishly. He really needed her to be there. He couldn't be able to face looking up and see nothing there. However this brought back some previous insecurity. What if she wanted to leave? What if she had had enough of almost dying for one lifetime and wanted to go back home to her normal carefree life? He wouldn't blame her. But this ate away at him. However hard he tried, he couldn't always keep her safe and maybe this was why she might want to leave. _

_But he couldn't face (wrong word) asking her. Instead he asked her something completely different but still quite important._

"_Are you hungry?"_

"_What?" she obviously hadn't been expecting this to come out of his mouth, however her face looked relieved._

"_Well, you must be hungry, what with all the… madness that has gone on today." He tried a smile, but it sort of came out as a grimace. _

"_You don't have to do this, you know," she said bravely. She knew how hard this must be for him, and she was determined to make it easier, regardless of what that would cost her in the long run._

"_What do you mean?" The Doctor asked bewildered._

"_Pretend."_

"_Pretend about what?" asked the Doctor, who was even more confused._

"_About... about," she took a deep breath. She could do this. "About…how you, um…how you feel. How you _really_ feel," she managed to get out with a squeak._

_The Doctor looked at her in complete shock. How did she know? She was only human, she couldn't read his mind…or could she? He wasn't sure anymore. Maybe prolonged experience with a Time Lord enhanced those latent abilities. He didn't know, he had never tested it before, but he was willing to bet that this had nothing to do with latent abilities and everything to do with Rose being Rose. He gulped. He was going to have to do this. She had seen it in him, and he knew that she was not going to let this drop. _

_He cleared his throat._

"_It's ok," Rose said, before he could begin. "You don't have to worry about me. I can handle it." She said, in an attempt to sound brave._

"_Rose…"_

"_I'm a liability, I realise that now, so you don't have to sugar coat it or anything. Just spit it out." She said, her eyes squeezed shut, as if she were reading a fatal blow._

_Liability? Oh! _

_It all made sense now. She_ didn't_ read his mind; she was worried about something, else, something entirely different. Something stupid, ridiculous, mad, and most importantly - impossible. She was worried that he wanted her out. It all made sense, her expression, her breathing pattern, her speech. All of it. As he came to the realisation that Rose thought that he wanted to get rid of her, he surprised himself. Abruptly he was angry, very angry. How many times did she need to be told, why wouldn't she understand how much she meant to him? He could_ never_ just leave her and fly off into the stars without her! What was the matter with her? _

"_Rose," he said, his voice now struggling to hide his anger with her, "I don't _want_ to get rid of you!"_

_Her eyes widened. She didn't think he would just come out and say it like that. Wait…he _didn't _want her gone? Oh! She started to smile until she saw his face. He was furious. _

"_Why are you so angry with me?" She asked, shocked, "I didn't know. You just sat there silently for about half an hour without saying anything to me. I thought I had done something wrong!"_

"_So, naturally you came to the conclusion that I would kick you out? Because I really am that cold-hearted aren't I?"_

_Rose sighed. "No, I didn't mean it like that. I just thought that, well; since I went to Magpie's shop that it was sort of my fault. I put myself in danger and if you hadn't have found me, well…" _I wouldn't have a face_ she finished in her mind._

"_Rose," he said, "I can't imagine a world without you. Don't you understand?"_

"_Oh, you'd get over it," she smiled with some difficulty (though not as much as before). "I'm not the only person you've been with" _Ok that didn't come out right.

_The Doctor's face crumpled. She still didn't get it. _

"_I'm sorry," she said, watching as the Doctor's face fell. "I didn't mean it like that. Gosh I get my mouth back, and all I end up doing is saying the wrong things," she laughed nervously._

_He continued to stare at her and Rose thought she noticed a tear in his eye. She felt terrible. She got up from her seat and walked over to him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and did something that surprised Rose. He started to cry, very softly. She could only tell he was crying because he shook against her. She had never before, in her life, seen him cry and she found herself doing things she ordinarily wouldn't. She held him tighter as he dropped to his knees in front of her and began to stroke his hair in an effort to comfort him. After a short time, stroking didn't seem as important as kissing, so she kissed his hair and kneeled down in front of him. She hugged him again and kissed his temple. _

"_I'm sorry," she said again, holding him tighter. He groaned unhappily in response._

_She began to reflect on how their relationship had changed from mere acquaintances, when she first came on board the TARDIS, to… this. What was this? Was it what she always wanted, were they stepping over the platonic line and venturing into something more? Or was this something he would just brush off when he was done crying?_

_No. She would not accuse him again tonight._

"_Rose," he sighed. He voice sounded muffled but it didn't hide the longing in his voice. Her heart sped up as she held him tighter (it was a miracle he could breath at this point). _

"_Rose," he said again, unwrapping himself from her strong hold to look at her. It was now or never. He needed to tell her. "IneedyouandIcan'!" he blurted out. _

_Rose's heart stopped for a fraction of a second and then started beating double time. She had heard 3 words clear enough to understand what he had been saying. Her smile was like the sun coming out on a particularly stormy day. "Took you long enough," she murmured. She stood up and, pulling him up with her, took his hand, leading him to his bedroom…_

She knew that dwelling on this would only make her more upset, so she tried to focus on the present. And speaking of the present, she decided it was time to phone Angel (he had given her his number promptly before he had left) and demand to know where he was with her pyjamas and toiletries. She climbed out of the bed she had been wrapped up in and made her way down to the lobby in the semi-darkness of the Hotel. She reached the stairs and was about to start descending when she heard a shuffle of feet.

"Angel?" she called out a little nervously, she had never been crazy about the dark. She descended the stairs in slow motion, listening for any sign that Angel was in the building; she wasn't in the mood for jokes. "Angel," she called again, a little more confidently: she wasn't about to get played about. She entered the bright lobby to find that it was empty – except.

"Surprise" came a voice from behind her.

Her world went black.

-x-

A low rumble alerted her to the sound of someone else's voice. She gasped. The room was dark so she had no idea where this person was. She hadn't realised it at first but…the room also smelt bad. Really bad. Like dog. She sighed. The first room she goes into and it has to be the one where the British guy keeps his smelly pets. The rumbling sound grew louder and she waited to hear a bark or something but nothing came. There was only the sound of rumbling, which now sounded a lot like growling_. Oh great. An unfriendly dog_. Like that was what she needed at this time.

"Nice doggy, " she said as she fumbled to find the lights. The growling grew louder. She found the switch and flicked it quickly "Good…little…doggy?" She had been wrong. It _wasn't_ a dog. The growling sound was now ripping from the werewolf's throat as it watched her feel for the door handle. It coiled and sprang towards her. Cordelia screamed.

-x-

Angel got out of his car and walked over to the hotel. He had gone to find Rose some pyjamas although he didn't know it was going to be as hard as it was. He didn't even know why he had bothered in the first place. What, because she told him to? What kind of flimsy excuse was that? He was a vampire, dammit. He should be bossing _her_ around. He sighed. Rose was more like Cordelia than he could have ever imagined. She already had him fetching errands for her and she hadn't even been there for a day. What was the world coming to? He rolled his eyes and resolved not to take any crap from her when she saw her pyjamas. Apparently all they had in Walmart at the time where men's pj's and so he braced himself for her temper and resolved to put his foot down the moment she raised her voice, which he wasn't sure she'd really do. He walked up the steps and was met with – silence.

No screaming, no complaining, no Rose. He supposed that she was in her room so he hurried up the stairs, deciding that if she was already asleep, he might not kill her for wasting his time, and might just place the pj's in the bin instead. No – actually, no that was a waste. But he'd make her find them. He entered her room, suspiciously to find – nothing. He sighed, if he was going to be trailing around the hotel for her, he would not be happy.

"Rose," he called. "Hey Rose, I got your pj's here," he said making his way back towards the lobby. "They're for men so don't be…pissed…" he said coming to a stop at the front desk where there was a little note stuck to it. It read:

'_We have Cordelia – time to make a deal.'_

He scrunched the piece of paper in his hands until it was about the size of a stud. He inspected the lobby – carefully, this time. He found tiny bits of broken glass, a bit of rubber that looked like it had come from an expensive shoe and…blonde hair. They didn't have Cordiela, they had Rose. He had only just met the girl, it was her first night here and she had been caught up in his troubles already? He wouldn't stand for it. He pulled out his blasted cell phone and managed to dial his team one by one. They were going to save her.

-x-

The Doctor burst into _the_ room - already a bad sign, there was a perception filter on this door for a reason - and turned on the light to find Cordelia sitting on the floor covered head to toe in drool, however the picture before him was a strange one. She was not cowering in fear as he suspected (although she had to know by now, that Buster was not dangerous) she was just sitting with him as though she found some kind of calm with him. This surprised him. Buster, at first sight was what a human would instantly describe as a werewolf, but in actual fact, this was not the case, he was simply a genetically enhanced Clos'm - creatures they deemed to be pests, that actually resembled odd-looking dogs - from the planet Malasikla. The Doctor had rescued Buster. He was being experimented on in the cruellest ways, so he decided it was time Buster found a new home. All this he did without Rose's knowledge, to his intense surprise, because she had spend that afternoon in the locals' gardens scaring away their pests with her pink and yellowness. He smiled fondly at the memory and surveyed the sight in front of him one more time before speaking.

"Err, are you all right?" he asked, apprehensively.

"Yes, no thanks to you," she said quietly "Where were you about 30 seconds ago when I was actually terrified?"

"Well… to be honest I didn't really expect you to find _this _particular door. It's, you know, reserved for him." The Doctor said, gesturing to Buster.

"Yeah, well, when I came in here it seemed empty."

"Buster was probably asleep," he said. A thought then occurred to him. "Hang on; aren't you meant to be recovering?" He asked his eyebrows rose in suspicion.

"I needed some air," she replied hastily. No need to tell him that she had attempted a rather pathetic escape.

"And 'needing some air' happened to find you in here, did it?" he said, smirking now.

Cordelia rolled her eyes at him and turned back to look at Buster, who had now curled himself around her feet. 'Buster' - _weird name_, she thought, wasn't so bad, after all, Cordelia decided. Once you got past the fact that he looked incredibly like a mangled werewolf, Buster was actually pretty sweet.

"Are you planning on staying in here then?" The Doctor's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Let's see," said Cordelia, pretending to contemplate, "Annoying British alien, or smelly gigantic dog…"

"He's not a dog, he's-"

"I don't give a crap at this moment," she said, unwrapping herself from Buster, who had fallen asleep, and wiping drool off her hair. She wanted one thing, and one thing only. "Where's the bathroom, I need a shower, like now."

The Doctor cleared his throat. He didn't much like the idea of her showering in his shower – it was the closest – so he gave her directions to another one, down the corridor, to the right and then four doors down. She rolled her eyes at him and headed off without thanking him, and without any spare clothes. He sighed, as much as he didn't like the ides of Cordelia wearing Rose's clothes, those were the only women's clothes he could think of that would fit her.

"Women," he muttered to Buster's sleeping form.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N - Hola, all. So sorry I haven't updates in ages. It took me awhile to come up with this chapter, although it seems like it's very short. I'll try to update sooner. Got lots of stuff to do. Sorry about that. We are getting closer and closer to all the characters being reunited. I hope you enjoy :)**

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Angel sat on one of the circular green chairs in the lobby of the Hyperion Hotel waiting for the gang to arrive whilst thinking up a plan that would get Rose out of trouble without harming her. He had called them not too long ago and was impatient at the speed it took to get them there. He would have just gone by himself, but he knew that this was not the time for rash actions. He needed a plan, and Wesley was just the man to help him with that. They would need a decoy. Fred had lots of little widgets that she had build when she first came here. And most of all, he would need more muscle, and that was where Gunn came in. Angel knew that the bastards at Wolfram & Hart assumed Rose to be Cordelia, which meant that they would have no problem torturing her if it was necessary. Angel growled quietly. Why did she always seem to get in trouble? She hadn't even been there for a full 24 hours, and she had almost gotten herself killed, and now she had gotten herself kidnapped. No, this wasn't her fault. Not Cordelia, not the monsters and not Wolfram & Hart. She was just… a magnet for trouble, and in this city being a magnet for trouble will end up getting you dead. He shuddered at the thought of what Lilah would be doing to her now. But wait… she was not Cordelia. It was obvious - the blonde hair for starters, adding that to the fact that she looked nothing like her. Lilah would know this the minute she took a look at her. So why did she still take her? What were they doing to her? Was it a trap? Did they have the real Cordelia?

Angel was stirred from his deep concentration by the doors opening in front of him signalling the entrance of Gunn, Fred and Wesley, all looking dishevelled and tired, but alert.

"Angel," said Wesley in a cautious tone as he surveyed the mess from Rose's kidnapping, "I was thinking as we were in the car that we shouldn't go rushing into Wolfram & Hart without a plan. Lilah's bound to know that it's not Cordelia the minute she sees her, and she may use her as a tool to get to you."

Angel pondered that for a moment. Rose didn't really know him from any other vampire in LA, or the world for that matter. What was to stop her from telling them where the real Cordelia was, if she knew? What if they were in this together from the beginning? Steal Cordelia, and then be kidnapped to make it look as if she didn't do it, luring him into a trap.

"Yo, Angel. What are we gonna do?" asked Gunn "Cos, I aint about to walk into a trap." He said, as if he had read Angel's mind.

Angel decided to go with his original conclusions about the situation, that Rose was innocent and they had to save her.

"Fred, do you still have little weird thing you built that threw spikes at unsuspecting passers by?" asked Angel. Fred nodded. "Cos we're gonna need it."

-X-

The TARDIS gave an almighty jolt and threw both the Doctor and Cordelia to the floor – face first.

"God! What is wrong with you?" Cordelia exclaimed as she got up, rubbing her now bruised arm, and hoping to god that her nose wasn't broken.

"Sorry," said the Doctor, gingerly getting up off the floor and stretching, "bit of a bumpy landing, I know."

"A bit?" Cordelia challenged, stretching her neck, "That was not 'a bit of a bumpy landing.'" She said air quoting him. "That was a damn bone-breaking landing!"

"Ow!" she winced as she clicked her neck and a shock went through her body.

"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked, walking up to her to examine her yet again. She stopped him with her hand before he could get too close.

"No, I'm not. I wanna see Angel. Are we here? Are we back on Earth?" She felt weird even having to say something like that. How had she gotten herself into this mess?

The Doctor ran to the TARDIS doors, opened then a little, and took a peek. He turned back to his companion and grinned. He opened one of the doors wider and beckoned Cordelia.

"You wanna take a look?"

Cordelia contemplated that for a second, and then ran to the doors and threw them open. She gasped. She could believe it. She was home! The Hyperion hotel stood across the street, and she could see Angel's black car – it was driving away! Gunn and Fred sat in the back whilst Wesley, and Angel sat in the front. Angel was driving of course. She couldn't believe it. She ran out of the TARDIS, the Doctor was hot on her heels, and shouted out to the car that was getting further and further away, hoping that Angel's vamp ears would hear her. The car kept on driving.

Cordelia was pissed. How could they go anywhere without her? Where were they going anyway? Without a seer, what were they doing? Sure they could've had a client, but at this time of night? The chances were pretty slim.

The Doctor stood beside her, equally as eager to find Rose, as she was to get to Angel.

"Right!" He said loudly, snapping her out of her daze, "The city of Angels isn't it? Well you go find your Angel and tell him to bring my Rose"

"Hello? Did you not see him drive away?"

"No. When?"

"Just now." Cordelia sighed, "Well, we don't know where they are going so we might as well just wait." She said starting to head towards the hotel. The Doctor grabbed her shoulder, stopping her, but then quickly let go under her burning glare.

"Nonsense we'll just follow them!" He said, striding back to the TARDIS and gesturing her to follow.

"Uh, how?" Cordelia asked, following him back to the TARDIS. They stepped back through the double doors, and the Doctor danced around the console switching this and that to get the TARDIS up and running.

"Tracker!" He exclaimed. "Quick, give me your boyfriends' number."

"He's not my – oh whatever," Cordelia complied and gave the Doctor Angel's cell phone number. "He's not gonna pick up, he doesn't know how to use the blasted thing."

"Don't need him to answer. Just need the GPS. Wait… he doesn't know how to use a phone?" The Doctor asked, whilst typing in the information.

"He's a little… old fashioned"

"I'll say. Right!" he exclaimed before she could say anything else, "Let's go"

He flicked a switch and the TARDIS lurched, causing them both to hold on to the seats.

"Do you even know how to work this thing?"

"'Course I do," The Doctor said, as he brought his mallet down on the TARDIS console shouting, "Behave!"

The TARDIS lurched again and then stopped moving. The Doctor ran to the doors and threw them open. They stepped out of the TARDIS onto a carpeted floor. It was clear that they were inside a building of some kind. The hallway they were on was light and airy. There were papers on the floor that had clearly been in a neat pile before and Cordelia picked one up to examine it, whilst the Doctor walked forward to examine the hallway more, commenting that it looked like they were in an office.

Cordelia gasped as she looked at the paper. At the top of the piece of paper was the logo W&H. She cursed.

"Not… good."


End file.
